Planet Fitness Signed a definitive acquisition agreement Sunshine Fitness, the highest-grossing franchisee in its system with 114 gyms in a $800 million cash and stock deal. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2022. Sunshine Fitness has been the first franchisee of the Planet Fitness system and has been supported by TSG Consumer Partners since 2017. Its 114 units are located in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South. Carolina, and will be incorporated into the company’s owned portfolio located predominantly in the Northeast. Shane McGuinness is the co-founder and CEO of Sunshine Fitness and has been the owner and operator of Planet Fitness for nearly 20 years. After closing, McGuiness will oversee the operations of the company’s combined portfolio of 200 stores, which make up about 10 percent of its total system. Chris Rondeau, CEO of Planet Fitness, noted that the transaction will enhance the geographic diversification of the company’s portfolio in markets set for future store development.
Franchise operator in Los Angeles delicious chicken Bought 90 franchises Kentucky Restaurants in eight states, including 15 KFC /Taco Bell combined sites. Units sold by Fowler Foods, led by franchisor Chris Fowler, and located in Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi, and Tennessee. This is Tasty Chick’n’s second deal in the Yum Brands system, following its July 2021 acquisition of 21 Dunkin’ stores. Tasty Chick’n is part of Tasty restaurants group, a restaurant management group affiliated with private equity firm Triton Pacific Capital Partners. Tasty Restaurant Group operates nearly 370 quick-service restaurants in 16 states including Pizza Hut, Burger King, Dunkin’, Baskin Robbins, Kentucky, and Taco Bell. Unbridled Capital has provided sell-side advisory services to Fowler Foods. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Premium Service Brands acquired router man and its 750 territories in its largest acquisition to date, bringing the total PSB footprint to more than 1,000 locations. This follows PSB’s acquisition of House Doctors and Grout Medic in the fall of 2021. Headquartered in Billerica, Massachusetts, Rooter-Man is a sewage and plumbing cleaning franchise with more than 125 franchisees operating in 750 locations in the United States and Canada, which has been owned and operated by Donald MacDonald since 1970. Rooter-Man is the 10th brand in PSB’s portfolio and joins 360° Painting, Maid Right, ProLift Garage Doors, Handyman Pro, Kitchen Wise, Rubbish Works and Renew Crew. The home services franchisor simultaneously reported a 55 percent increase in system-wide sales year over year.
Related Topics: Why Home Service Brands Are Hot Commodities
Youth Athletic Union added Little Rocky Baseball to its fast-growing youth sports portfolio, to expand its reach to 291 regions in the United States. This is the fifth brand under the YAU umbrella. Little Rookies Baseball — formerly Little Rookies before the acquisition — joins Soccer Stars, Amazing Athletes, TGA Premier Sports and JumpBunch. Little Rookies Baseball, a baseball coaching brand for kids ages 2-6, will focus on the 4- to 6-year-old group in 2022, similar to the target market for Soccer Stars and Amazing Athletes, and will be offered in the six operating regions Current in Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Miami. This deal enhances YAU’s access to more than 200,000 educated children, bringing YAU closer to its goal of impacting one million children each year. James Silva, who has been the president of Little Rookies for more than two years, will serve as the COO of Little Rookies Baseball. YAU’s goal for Little Rookies Baseball is to expand to 25 to 30 states in the next three years.
horse power brandsrecently obtained Mighty dog roofing And Blinglepurchased a spray foam insulation company iFoamTM It plans to award 100 concessions by the end of 2022. This is a similar approach taken by Horse Power when it acquired its first brand, the emerging roof repair and replacement brand Mighty Dog Roofing, in 2020. It promptly launched the development the following year and awarded 183 areas to 48 franchisees across 18 states. Horsepower, founded in 2019 by Josh Skolnick and Zach Butler, bought 20-year-old Heroes Holiday Lighting in the fall of 2021 and changed its brand to Blingle.
body brands acquired The world of colors for home painting With 20 franchise locations across the United States, this marks the ninth addition to the Branding Authority’s brand since October 2018 and the company’s eleventh brand in its home services portfolio, which includes more than 1,900 territories operated by more than 1,000 franchisees. Founded in 1997 by Tom Hodgson, Color World is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio and offers a myriad of services including interior and exterior painting, power washing, carpentry and drywall repairs, tinting, gutter installation, and holiday lighting services. Color World joins America’s Swimming Pool Company, Benjamin Franklin Plumbing, The Cleaning Authority, DoodyCalls, Homewatch CareGivers, Mister Sparky, Monster Tree Service, Mosquito Squad, One Hour Heating and Air Conditioning and Restoration Stop. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Boxwood Partners provided sale-side advisory services to Color World during the transaction.
NextPoint Financea Special Purpose Acquisition Corporation or SPAC that has merged freedom tax With LoanMe Last year, it will add tax debt settlement to its suite of services with the acquisition of its Chicago headquarters community tax. This positions NextPoint as one of the largest tax debt settlement companies in the United States, according to Liberty Tax CEO Brent Turner. Community Tax was founded in 2010 and has offices in Chicago, Jacksonville, Florida, and Puerto Rico. NextPoint was formed by the $243 million Liberty Tax and LoanMe merger that closed on July 2.
Related: Freedom Tax settles lawsuit against founder John Hewitt, ATAX
Levin Lichtman Capital Partnersa Los Angeles-based private equity firm, has sold its investment portfolio company HomeOrigins of America global investment management company Bayview Asset Management. HomeVestors, ranked #64 on the Franchise Times’ Top 400 List, is known for its “We Buy Ugly Houses” tagline and has more than 1,100 locations, all owned by franchisees. Real estate investment franchise, founded in 1996 and headquartered in Dallas, grew its sales system-wide by 30.6 percent in 2020. This marks LLCP’s seventh exit in the past year, after West Academic, Best Lawyers, Caring Brands, And FlexXray, Trinity Consultants and nothing Bundt cakes.
Riverside Corporation Latest investment in Millie Care, a franchise brand of flooring and textile care from Millikn & Company. This is an additional investment for Clintar’s Riverside platform, which is focused on franchisees in the commercial property maintenance and cleaning service industries. MilliCare will move more than 30 franchisees and 40 locations to the Riverside portfolio. Milliken will continue to manufacture and provide dry carpet cleaners and care solutions for Millicare. Riverside launched Threshold Brands last year as a comprehensive company targeting commercial service franchises, such as MaidPro, FlyFoe, Men in Kilts, Pestmaster and USA Insulation.
Noodles and Co. Will sell 15 company-owned units to California franchisee Warner Foods. Noodles & Company also recently signed a 55-unit restaurant deal with Warner Foods, which already operates more than 150 Jack in the Box, Black Bear Diner and Panera Bread restaurants. Warner Foods, which will act as NorCal Noodles, is California’s exclusive franchise partner and will develop 40 new restaurants in the next 12 years, as well as re-franchise 15 company-owned stores as part of the agreement.
United Real Estate It has merged with its headquarters in Houston Texas United Realty. Founded in 2009, 750 Texas United Realty agents will be added to the United Real Estate platform and together they will form one of the largest independently owned brokerages in Houston. This merger follows United Real Estate additions of Charles Rutenberg Realty Fort Lauderdale, Atlanta-based Virtual Properties Realty, and Nashville-based Benchmark Realty.
Parkland Corp. Signed a definitive purchase agreement M&M Food Market, along with over 2,300 locations including over 300 Canadian M&M Express units. Parkland plans to grow M&M’s footprint in Canada while expanding into new international markets, including the US M&M brand, driving, franchise system and store network as is. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2022.
Founders Table Restaurant Groupthe parent company of Chopt Creative Salad Company and Dos Toros Taqueria, has attracted significant investment from Pendulum In the latest capital increase. Pendulum joins L Catterton, Founders Table’s largest shareholder. D’Rita and Robbie Robinson co-founded Pendulum Strategic Growth Investment Company in 2019 focused on investing in businesses owned by diversified entrepreneurs. Chopt acquired Dos Toros Taqueria in January 2020 in a deal funded by L Catterton, which formed the Founders Table Restaurant Group.
Brinker Internationalthe parent company of Chili’sbought back 37 restaurants from the franchisor food quality. The deal closed in October, and terms were not disclosed. Chili’s restaurants are located in six states, including Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. Quality Dining is based in Indiana and also operates near 150 Burger King restaurants. The deal follows Brinker’s acquisition of 23 Chili’s franchises in September 2021 from franchisee Chesapeake Foods, which has been a franchisee for the chain for 37 years, and its 2019 acquisition of 116 units from franchisee ERJ Dining, which is operated by the NBA player. Previous Junior Bridgeman . Dallas-based Brinker is also the franchisee of Maggiano’s Little Italy, which has more than 50 restaurants.
Apple Bee’s concessionaire SSCP Management Acquired 12 additional stores in Virginia from Apple investor group, expanding SSCP’s impact to 80 Applebee units and total portfolio to about 400 stores in 25 states. SSCP also owns 46 Sonic Drive-Ins, Roy’s Hawaiian Fusion brand and Cici’s Pizza brand, which it purchased in spring 2021 in partnership with Anand Gala Gala Capital Partners. SSCP is a family business started and led by Sunil Dharod, a Dallas entrepreneur. His son Chris Darrow is the president and his daughter Pooja Darrow is the principal and manager.
burger king concessionaire Raxon Restaurants GroupLed by Chris Johnson, 17 other units in northern Ohio from Franchise OperationsLed by Mike Showalter. Ron Johnson founded The Rackson Company in 2013 in Bridgewater, New Jersey, and operates more than 50 Burger Kings and Popeyes Restaurant. Unbridled Capital provided sale-side advisory services to franchise operations.
granted to him SC Food Group Sold 13 Kentucky Restaurants in Oklahoma and Kansas Schoenhofer projects. Unbridled Capital provided sell-side advisory services.
